Dragon Soul is receiving what will be the second of its zone wide nerfs, decreasing the damage dealt and health of its enemies by 10% from 5%.

There has been some retaliation from players, but it's always good to remember that the last thing Blizzard wants is another situation like the original Naxxaramas--it is their company goal now to have the majority of its playerbase experience the encounters and this is their method of doing it. Besides, it's not like it's a surprise now, is it?

In other news, we have our recent giveaway winners to announce. We have a bunch because I went on a giveaway spree last week. I'm sorry, I won't do it again!

Dragon Soul Nerfs

During the scheduled server maintenance on the week of February 28, the “Power of the Aspects” spell will grow more powerful, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the Dragon Soul raid by 10%. This spell will grow progressively stronger over time to reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties, but it will not affect the Raid Finder difficulty.

Don’t need the help of the Dragon Aspects? The spell can be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul.

We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to down that next boss.

Basically, you build embers with some spells, and then spend those embers with Soul Fire, Ember Tap, or Fire and Brimstone.

Internally, this is how it works:

Immolate – DD + DoT on the targetIncinerate – generates 1/10th ember, or 2/10ths if it crits an immolated target.Fel Flame – generates 1/10th ember, or 2/10ths if it crits an immolated target.Conflagrate – triggers Backdraft and has a 12 second cooldown.

In addition to increasing your base mana regen, Chaotic Energy increases mana regen even more with Haste. This means the ability to cast spells scales smoothly with gear.

As long as the warlock never lets her mana bar fill up and burn her embers, she's maximizing damage. This is very different from the standard caster model where priority is placed on casting at all times and ordering spells based on cooldown.

Our hope is that the Destruction Warlock will attract players who are interested in a playstyle that rewards spending resources at the right time, rather than constantly casting.

Keybinding and You

There is a lot of solid, in-depth responses here, and I wanted to chime in that in my own experience. When transitioning from clicking to using keybinds, don’t feel the need to transition too quickly. Give yourself time to learn, adjust, and experiment.

When I decided to study up and learn keybinds, I tried to look at what abilities I used the most, and started out by keybinding those. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself, so I tried to learn only about 2 to 4 new abilities a week, followed by a few more the next week and so on. With time and practice, I was able to commit them to memory, and in time it’s become second-nature to press the corresponding key rather than to click the abilities with my mouse.

If you are finding that you keep clicking them rather than using the keybind, you can also temporarily move the ability’s action button somewhere else on your UI so that when your mouse's cursor goes searching for it and finds it missing, you’ll be reminded to use the keybind you assigned it instead. Doing that sort of thing “forced” me to learn the keybinds rather than relying too heavily on clicking on them, as I was accustomed to doing. Don’t be afraid to experiment with what works best for you.

For me, the transition was a bit challenging starting out, but as I progressed and gained confidence with using keybinds, I really dug in and enjoyed it. As others have mentioned: make sure that the keybinds you choose are comfortable to press. This is doubly true if you are looking to frequently press keys in tandem with each other. For example: Shift + F is likely a lot more comfortable than Shift + U.

Don’t forget that you can also keybind your mouse’s scroll-wheel in both directions! Once I discovered that, I frequently bound abilities to it that I tended to spam-click otherwise. :)

Comment by pewpewx

Comment by Nerraw

Comment by vaanvern

Um, ashelia, i think you made a mistake, you mentioned that the bosses are getting a damage and health buff, not a nerf, please check that, unless i am mistaken :o

Dragon Soul is receiving what will be the second of its zone wide buffs, increasing the damage dealt and health of its enemies by 10% from 5%.

yeah, it reads buffs, not nerfs

just a heads up :)

Comment by Ashelia

on 2012/02/22 14:42:42

Um, ashelia, i think you made a mistake, you mentioned that the bosses are getting a damage and health buff, not a nerf, please check that, unless i am mistaken :o

Dragon Soul is receiving what will be the second of its zone wide buffs, increasing the damage dealt and health of its enemies by 10% from 5%.

yeah, it reads buffs, not nerfs

just a heads up :)

Simple typo, thanks for catching it! I meant decreasing.

Comment by keithmannk

on 2012/02/22 14:53:13

During the scheduled server maintenance on the week of February 28, the “Power of the Aspects” spell will grow more powerful, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the Dragon Soul raid by 10%. This spell will grow progressively stronger over time to reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties, but it will not affect the Raid Finder difficulty.Is what wow said so idk what is really happening

Comment by keithmannk

on 2012/02/22 14:54:23

wouldnt that be a nerf?

Comment by Interest

on 2012/02/22 15:36:14

Yay, maybe we can actually do Heroic Yor'sahj...assuming we don't get it this week...

Alos grats to the winners!

Comment by Rankkor

on 2012/02/22 16:14:33

I wanna know when do we get the email regarding the kingdoms of amalur prize =( I haven't received mine yet.

Comment by Ashelia

on 2012/02/22 16:22:49

I wanna know when do we get the email regarding the kingdoms of amalur prize =( I haven't received mine yet.

That should be this week, I'll ask marketing why they haven't emailed yet.

Comment by edwordrules

on 2012/02/22 18:40:03

Anybody else click on the winners name only to find a "User "/<winner's name>" not found!"? That was for the money cards, but if you click on the person that got a mount, you go to their profile. Hmmmmmm.....

Comment by Aislinge

on 2012/02/22 19:40:43

Why oh why do they have to fiddle with Destro locks! It's all about the DoTs and CD management - that's why people pick it! Go fiddle with one of the other specs ffs >.<

Comment by deathbeyond

on 2012/02/22 19:50:20

Why oh why do they have to fiddle with Destro locks! It's all about the DoTs and CD management - that's why people pick it! Go fiddle with one of the other specs ffs >.<

Honestly I prefer this new system they are making for Destro. I have stayed away from it because if I want DoT management, I'll go Afflic. This makes it seem more interesting to me, since it'll go from DoT and CD management to relying on you spending your resources efficiently. 'Lock is officially the only class I am now looking forward to playing in MoP. The other classes new talent systems still seem way too clunky to me.

Comment by gorlagon

on 2012/02/22 20:24:36

keep it up blizz its still a great game

Comment by Songoo

on 2012/02/22 20:29:26

As always I didn't win anything.

Comment by fylem

on 2012/02/23 07:42:56

There is saying reducing xD

Comment by Interest

on 2012/02/23 09:52:33

Why oh why do they have to fiddle with Destro locks! It's all about the DoTs and CD management - that's why people pick it! Go fiddle with one of the other specs ffs >.<

To be honest it looks interesting, although I'm not a fan of suffering damage to fuel the mechanic. We'll see how it turns out.

Comment by catadon22

on 2012/02/23 10:40:11

Damn! wish i could have won! i've been watching the heart of the aspects mount for 2 months!

Comment by Zanzari

on 2012/02/23 11:43:11

This nerf came a little early in my opinion but i trust that Blizzard knows what their doing :)

Comment by Molotus

on 2012/02/23 11:46:49

So I won a gift card. Wooo! What do I do now? Do I get an email or something?

Comment by burningeagles

on 2012/02/23 11:51:21

O wow I cant believe I won. How long does the email usually take just wondering?